Tension device.



J. o. MGK'EAN.

TENSION DEVICE. APLIUATION FILED DBO. 2 6, 1911.

Patented Apr. 3o, 1912.

UNITED siairns AI,#Airiivi OFFICE.A

JOHN O. MCKEAN, OF WIESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO FOSTER MACHINECOMPANY, F WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION 0F MAINE.

TENSION DEVICE. l

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented'Apr.3o,1912. i l

Application filed December 26, 1911. Serial No. 667,854.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, JOHN O. MOKEAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Westfield, in the county of Hampden and State ofMassachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in TensionDevices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is a tension device designed toI give an appropriatetension to a quickly moving thread in a winding machine and consistsessentially of a lower member, having an axial perpendicularprojectio-n, revolubly mounted, and an upper member in the form of awasher mounted upon the axial projection of the lower member.

In the drawings: Figure 1l shows my new tension device applied to awinding machine Fig. 2 is a planview `on an enlarged scale of myimproved tension device; Flg. 3 is a side elevation of the device shownin Fig. 2; and Figs. 4 and 5 are central longitudinal sections of thepreferred form of the upper and lower tension members respectively.

'In the practical working of tension devices several diiiculties occur,among which are the cutting of the friction surfaces of the tensiondevice by the rapidly moving thread, under pressure; the clogging of thedevice by the deposit of grease from the thread; the clogging of thedevice by the deposit ,of lint from the thread when the thread is ascoured or dry thread; and the difficulty caused by the suddenlyincreased drag `upon the thread caused by knots or the like passing intothe tension device, when the members are held in fixed relationship orwith a steady pressure.

It is the object of my invention to' produce a device which will havenone of the defects above enumerated and which will be eiiicient in theperformance of itstensioning function. Y

My device is applicable to various forms of winding machines and in thedrawings l have shown it as applied to a winding ma'- chine such as isshown in my United States Letters Patent, No. 952,015. I have indicated,in order to show the organization and relation of the parts, the camdrum A, the driving drum B, the thread guide C and cop D of thismachine.

Mounted upon the rod 1 in front of the 5 5 machine is the tensiondevice, which is adjustably secured upon the rodl by a setscrew 2 sothat it can be moved, if desired, longitudinally of the rod. The rod 14is preferably of glass or of metal withl a surl face of vitriedmaterial, and when such a rod is employed a disk 2a of leather, rubberor the like is interposed between the end of the set-screw 2 and thesurface of'l rod l. The tension device is made up of a table t11 andapivot t1, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, a lower tension member t3,22,'mounted thereon, an upper member t3 mounted upon the part t2, and inthe preferred form shown in the drawings, a guard member t, and a guidemember t5. The parts are supported upon a casting t6 bored to bevmounted upon rod 1 and secured in place by set-screw 2 vor other means.This casting is provided Ywith the usual horn t7 to guide the thread onits passage from the source of supply to the tension device. It will beobserved'that the tension device is set to one side of a direct linefrom the source of supply to the eye of the drop lever w, the objectbeing to insure that the thread shall always tend to draw into thetension device (see Fig. 2).

The member t2 is shown in Figs. 2 and 3, its inner surfaces beingindicated by dotted lines and in section in Fig. 5. It willbe observedthat it is made up of a dished, hollow member having a conical, hollow,axial extension 1522.

The part lisis` shown in Figsp2, 3 and 4. Part t3 is a dished hollowmember having an axial perforation somewhat larger than the base of theconical part t2 and designed, in use, to be mounted upon a conical eX-tension 1522, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The supporting casting t6 being mounted upon the rod 1 and secured kinthe desired position, the tension device is assembled by placing part t3upon the guard t* and then placing part t2 over the table t, the dishedlower part covering the table t and the member t2 pivoting upon theupperl end of a spindle t1., The table t is ldesigned to fit. looselywithin the hollow of the member t2 f when the'member t2 is pivoted onspindletl, so thatany aberration in the motion of thatl part will bringits inner surfaces into con-y tact with table 131.1 and checkfthe swingby the frictional contact. The part t2 is now shifted along the guardand deposited upon the parti22 with its convex side down. The thread islaid through the device, the horn 110 t7 serving as a guide and theguide bar t5 upon the other side guiding the thread between the disks.The guard t* projects close to the up-per end of 22 so that the part t3.5cannot `be accidentally displaced, nor the parts disassembledwithoutthe deliberate action of the operator by passing the disk t3 onto theguard t and then removing the part t2 from the spindle, which beingdone, the part t3 may be removed from the guard. The effect of this isthat when the parts are v assembled in the proper order as abovedirected, the guard serves to lock the parts in their properorganization.

The operation is as; follows: `The thread having been laid from thesupply, through the tension device to theeye m of drop bar .fr andthence to the thread guide C and cop D, the machine is started and thethread,

owing to the fact that the tension device is ber t?.

a little to one side of the supply,l draws to- Award the base ofthefconical extension 22, the upper tension member t3 resting on thethread and pressing it upon the lower mem- The draft of the thread willrotate the two tension members t2 and t3, and, if the draft on thethread tends to exceed the maximum desired (which is determined by theweight of the upper meniber t3) the inward pull of thethread against theconical lieving tension.

, base of extension t will cause the thread to ride up slightly upon theconical base of extension t2?, thus wedging upward momentarily the uppertension member t3 and re- Y The passage of a knot through the devicedoes not increase tension on the thread to the breaking point, as theeasy entrance to the device formed vby the curved surfaces of the twotensionmembers.

permits the knot -to wedge them apart and the knot passes without'trouble. By the rotation of the parts the abrasive action of the thread'is distributedequallyover the .tension surfaces and the formation ofgrooves '45" prevented, while the same rotation prevents the laying ofgrease in ridges alongside the traveling thread as may happenv intension devices in which the lower member is fixed, since the thread bvthe rotation of the lower member continually sweeps and cleans everypart of the upper surface of the lower mem ber, thus cleaning andpreventing the accu-l mulation of grease in ridges to interfere with the.pressure of the upper member upon the thread. When scoured or dry yarnis carried through the tension device, lint and the like which itcarries, as it is removed from the yarn by the action of the tensionmembers, collects upon the extension 22 and tends to wind'V about it asit revolves and owing' to t-he conicity of extension 1522, thi

lint and fiber quickly works upward towar the small end of the taper,.where it is easily removed by the attendant when it does not removeitself and .thus does not accumulate in the tension device to clog andinterfere with its action. The eye of the drop bar is preferably formedwith a porcelain bushing indicated at l In the machine to which mytension device is shown as applied in the drawings, the

bracket which carries the rod 1 and the tension device is designed whennecessary to be dropped, and -for this reason the feature of my devicewhich prevents the escape of the part t3 is especially useful, and it isfurther r useful since the upper member cannot under any conditions ofservice or accident be thrown from its place.

I claim:

1.1In a tension device, a lsupport for the parts, a vert-ical pinmounted thereon; a tension disk having a hollow axial extension,extending upward, by vwhich it is mounted and balanced upon the pin; asecond tension disk having an axial perforation by which vit is mountedupon the conical, axial extension, all combined and operatingsubstantiallyas described.

2. In a tensiony device, a support Ifor the parts; a vertical pinmounted thereon; a tension disk having a hollow outwardly conical axialextension extending upward .by which it is mounted and balanced uponupon the conical axial extension and a guard extending over the conicalaxial extension to retain the parts against accidental displacement, allcombined and operating substantially as described. f

Signed by me at Westfield, Massachu-` setts, this 20th day of December,1911.

' JOHN o. MCKEAN.

Witnesses:

LESTER CAMPBELL, ALICE C. BREEN.

